The Trial
by Grav
Summary: After his confrontation with Anubis, Daniel faces the Trial of the Ancients, and something inside of him is awoken.


AN: This came out of nowhere after I had finished watching "Meridian" for the first time. I kind of like it, although the idea of writing it scared the crap out of me. But once Impassioned!Daniel started to talk to me, it was out of my hands.

Spoilers: Rather severe for Full Circle, also for Meridian, Abyss, Changeling, Orpheus and Absolute Power.

Rating: PG-13 for a bit of language

Disclaimer: I am running out of witty ways to say that I do not own Stargate SG-1 in any way, shape or form.

Summary: After confronting Anubis, Daniel is put on trial by the Ancients, and something he has forgotten begins to wake up.

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**The Trial**

"Stop!" He demanded. Herak fired on him, but he paid no mind, and the bolt passed right through him.

"Stop me, if you can." Anubis said.

He raised his hands and gathered his will, determined to stop the Goa'uld who sat so smugly on the gilded throne before him.

"Strike me down. Do it now or I will destroy Abydos." He was being mocked. And he had no idea why.

Banishing the doubt from his mind, hechanged his will into pure energy and directed the beam at Anubis. He felt it go wrong. It shouldn't go wrong.

"No! Don't do this."

It was not Anubis. It was them, and he was powerless in their wake.

"No!"

But he could not fight the light that enveloped him. It pulled him away, away from Anubis, away from Abydos, away from those he was so very desperate to save.

"Daniel Jackson. You are here because you have disobeyed our highest and most sacred law."

The voice came from everywhere and nowhere. It surrounded him, and yet he strained to hear it. Gradually, as though he was putting on his glasses, so long ago abandoned, the scene came into focus.

"Because of your transgression, we have been assembled to decide what to do with you."

He was alone, standing by himself in the middle of a room he did not recognize. There were others too, standing in a circle around him, staring at him as though he was on display. He realized very suddenly that he probably was and clamped down hard on his instinct to look around for an escape route.

"What have I done?" he asked tentatively, even though he was fairly certain he knew the answer.

"You would have intervened." The voice was strangely choral, neither male nor female, and it pronounced the word 'intervened' as though it was the most abhorrent word in the Universe.

"Yes." There was no point in lying. "Yes, I would have. Anubis, I'm sure you remember him, was about to kill an entire planet, a planet that I love. I had to stop him."

"It is forbidden to intervene." He looked into the assembly, trying to identify the speaker.

"Why? Why is it forbidden?"

"There is great evil, Daniel Jackson, great and terrible evil. The only was to defeat it is to deny it battle"

"I've heard that before."

"It is our principle."

"But why? You could save millions of lives."

"This is how it has always been done."

"No it hasn't!" It was as though something inside him was finally waking up, something that had begun to stir in the gravity-prison while Jack O'Neill had fought so very hard in spite of the odds. "No it hasn't! You fought once, to save your own culture. You fought and you lost and you became this. And now, because it didn't work for you, you believe it won't work for anyone?"

"We were great once." The voice was angry now, well, as angry as the Ascended ever got. "We had weapons and ships and great technology. Your former race is nothing compared to what we were and our foe was nothing compared to that which they face."

"But we face it!" He felt alive. This was his true path, he was sure of it now. "When I Ascended, Oma told me that I would be able to do more good than I could as a human. And I can feel the power inside me, but every time I tried, you shut me down. I couldn't save Jack. I couldn't even end it for him. I barely helped save Teal'c, I could do nothing for Bra'tac, and when I tried to save an entire planet, you brought me here.

"We do not intervene."

"Would you deny the Goa'uld battle and give them free reign in the galaxy? They fight with your technology. Anubis exists at all because of you. And still you do nothing. You do worse than nothing. Oma told me that all that matters in the Universe is whether you are good or evil."

"That is the only part of the Universe anyone can control."

"Bullshit! Causes can be good.Causes have effects. Effects can be far reaching."

"And dangerous."

"And good! The only thing that matters in this universe is whether you _do_ good or evil."

He realized he was pacing and stopped, looking again at his observers. They met his gaze coldly. Their faces were expressionless. He looked for Oma in the crowd, but could not see her.

"You might be good. But you don't do good. And that is the most evil thing I can think of."

"You would judge us, Daniel Jackson?" The voice was deadly quiet now. "You, the newest, the youngest, the most inferior of all, would pass your primitive judgment on us?"

It hung in the air for a few seconds before he came up with his answer, an answer he knew he would pay dearly for giving.

"I would."

"Then you shall see evil, Daniel Jackson. You shall battle it, and then you will understand."

The light surrounded him again, and he was rushing down and down and down, spiraling towards something he did not understand.

_Remember_

_I am Daniel Jackson. I am a member of SG-1. We explore the galaxy looking for friends and allies._

Nerves he had lost flared suddenly to life and pain and sensation overwhelmed him. He hit the ground, and felt solid for the first time in an eternity.

_Remember_

_I am Daniel Jackson. I will fight the Goa'uld with every part of my being until they are defeated or I have drawn my last breath in defiance of them._

His blood screamed through newly formed veins and he gasped for air, fighting not to let the blackness take him again.

_Remember_

_Who am I?_

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AN: Well, that was unexpected. But I think I liked it. What do you think?


End file.
